Northwest Territory

The Northwest Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from 1787 to 1803. The territory was a colony of the Kingdom of France as a part of New France from 1634 to 1763, when it was ceded to Great Britain following the French and Indian War. The area was kept a Native American barrier state by the British, and it was inhabited by tribes such as the Miami tribe, Huron, Shawnee, Potawatomi, Odawa, Kickapoo, Menominee, and Lenape tribes, with the British maintaining a few outposts such as Fort Michilimackinac, Vincennes, Cahokia, and Fort Detroit. In 1779, the native tribes were scattered by John Sullivan's Continental Army expedition into the region during the American Revolutionary War, and the region was ceded to the United States under the 1783 Treaty of Paris. In 1787, the Northwest Territory became an organized incorporated territory, although the British continued to garrison forts in the region and support Native American raids against the USA. From 1785 to 1795, in the Northwest Indian War, the US Army struggled to take over the region, and it forced the Natives to sign the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, allowing for the USA to take over the region. In 1803, Ohio was granted statehood, and the rest of the states would become individual territories.